Newest Development

Dad finished his radiation about 2 weeks ago. Over the last few weeks, he has suffered a few set-backs unrelated to his multiple myeloma (ie - broken ribs, yeast infection in his throat) but we were hopeful that he would return to the joke-telling, easy going, paperback-book-reading Grandpa Brown in no time. 

We moved Dad into his new room downstairs (which looks great!) and due to fantastic organization on our sister's part, helping Dad with his medications is a breeze. He has a new flat screen TV, a padded reclining glider, a mini fridge and a fancy smancy new hospital bed to help make him comfortable. The best environment for a recovery and the best way to keep Dad away from the stairs :) 

However, his recovery has been slower than expected. His tumors have shrunk, but he developed a blood clot in his calf and in his lung over the weekend. His appetite has decreased, and it is still difficult for him to take a deep breath (not because of his tumor but because of his broken ribs).  

Our newest development? Today Dad checked into the hospital with a bout of pneumonia. The pneumonia is affecting the upper part of his lungs and he needs IV anti-biotic therapy but he is expected to be home by the weekend. We are hoping there will be no additional complications and a special thanks to Misha who waited at the hospital for 5 hours until they managed to find a vein to give Dad his antibiotics. 5 hours? What type of needle were they using? A straw from McDonalds? Thank you Misha!!!!

Four Broken Ribs? A Mere Flesh Wound!!!

Let's try this again; I posted these in the wrong order, but now they are right again. Enjoy!

Hey everyone; It is finally Joe's time to post on Dad's blog. I will do so with the disclaimer that I am not as current on his health as Buffy/Misha/Jacque/Debbie. That quadrumvirate still rules the day, and they have taken him to just about every doctor appointment he has had. If I got something wrong on here, I hope they will set the story straight for everyone. Here is what I know.

I had a the same question from several people via email that I will answer first, then I will post some news updates.
People ask me what the chances are that this cancer can be cured. The chances of that are zero percent. This is an incurable form of cancer. However, we are hoping to get Dad into remission, which just means that the Multiple Myeloma cancer goes dormant, and stops growing for a while. This isn’t like some cancers that can be removed, and then monitored to ensure that it doesn’t return. This type is always there since it is part of his bone marrow now.
Unless something new and worse pops up, this cancer will be terminal for him someday. All this work and treatment by his medical team are focused on making the cancer stop growing, and getting him into remission. If that happens, then we are talking about additional 2-5 years of pain-free life, with the damage to his skeleton healed with medications. That is the positive outcome, and the negative outcome is that he just keeps getting sicker, with no respite from the cancer until it is terminal. We won’t know for a couple of months how that is working, or what are his chances of reaching remission, but the doctors emphasize the positive for us.

If he can get into remission, then he also has a remote chance that he can undergo a bone-marrow transplant. If that happens, the median patient with a bone-marrow transplant is able to remain in remission for up to TEN YEARS. I think you all know which outcome we are praying for here.

The latest health report for Phil Brown is that he is still in a lot of pain, even with all the heavy-duty painkillers. I do mean heavy-duty; there is nothing stronger than what he currently takes every day to try and keep his pain down, other than pure morphine. 
And he has already asked me several times to head downtown and see if I can score some of that for him. So I did, but I just used it myself before I got back. I had a hangnail, you see…

Here is what he is taking these days for treatment. Radiation treatments, but he is nearly done with these. In fact, this has made the tumors on his chest and back shrink a lot. They will continue with the treatments on his pelvis and another one on his back though, because those are not shrinking as fast as the others. He should only have 10 more days of those daily treatments, and that is good those are almost finished because they really sap his energy.  

He is still taking steroids that are supposed to help him be strong enough to fight through all these health challenges. Those are helping, but they make his blood sugar zoom all over the place. Sky-high one day, way low the next day. I know that has been tough for him to get it regulated, and it makes his appetite lousy because he feels so sick most of the time. But he is being a real trouper, and fighting through these sick feelings.
He also gets a takes a Skele-Grow treatment each week. It is a bone-strengthening mix he gets via IV that makes us all laugh because it seems like the Harry Potter potion from Book 2.
He is also taking a thalidomide-based drug that helps stop the cancer from growing; it is a pre-cursor to the chemo treatments he will start once the radiation treatments are done. He always yells at me when I bring it to him with my arms hidden in my shirt with only my hands showing. “Joseph, that isn’t funny at all!” Sadly, that is a macabre example of why my sense of humor is unacceptable to civilized people everywhere. 

That is pretty much the whole set. Dad was feeling pretty good last week, even through all his struggles with the radiation, steroids, Skele-Grow, birth-defect causing agents, and physical therapy sessions. Then he had a new problem. He fell down late Wednesday evening, and if you have been following this blog, you know he has bone cancer, and it has caused holes all over his body in his bone mass. Well, he broke four ribs, so now he has even more body parts to cause him pain. It is especially lousy since he seemed to have a good handle on all the treatments he was getting. Sadly, it will be a few weeks before those start to knit up, so we will need to work even harder to keep him comfortable.

I stayed with Dad over the Labor Day weekend, and it was a lot of work. All you Browns owe your Utah sisters an enormous Obrigado, because they are working like rented mules keeping Dad going to all his appointments, cleaning his house, and helping him out. I was wiped out after I did it for a single weekend, and they have been at it for 6 weeks now. I will say it for everyone; 
Nice work, hermanas…
More news; Bart Smithson came up from AZ last week and like a tornado in reverse built Dad a bedroom and bathroom on the main house floor in one week. That means he won’t have to keep struggling with the stairs every day. We have a few more things to finish there (painting, carpet, etc.) and get a new bed delivered, but once that is done it will be much easier for Dad to relax there and heal. It was getting really tough to navigate that stairway to go visit the hospital and stuff.
So we Browns owe a huge Thank You to Bart for spending a week on that marvelous bathroom, and to Angela for being a single mom for all that time. It is all planned to be more accessible for him as he gets better. I will post a few more pictures when I get up there to paint again this weekend.
I don’t mean to make it sound like all tears and frowns up there, though. Dad still has his sense of humor about it all, even when things are really hurting. While I was downstairs in the kitchen, Dad was upstairs watching TV, and I heard a huge crash on the stairs. You can’t see the stairs from Dad’s kitchen, so I had a head-slapping “hot water burn baby” moment of “Holy crap, I killed Dad on the stairs” moment before I charge over to see what had happened. It was just Ethan, my 13 year old going down the stairs four-at-a-time. After I yelled my fear out on him, I went upstairs to see how he was, and told him what a fright I had. His response was “No, you don’t have to worry about me falling down those stairs. I got enough gymnastics when I dove onto the bedroom floor the other night.” 
We didn’t get much useful done last weekend, but we did have a chance to watch some good westerns together and talk about how no-one else in the family is quite as cool as he and I are. For those of you on the inside story of his back surgery, I teased John B that he left one of his bags on the floor in Dad’s room, and that caused the current problem as well.
Those are the good things; Dad has a good attitude, tons of kids to help out, loads of insurance, and he is getting the best care possible. His chances are very good that he will be able to improve, and he will feel better once this first set of treatments are complete. 

Thank you to everyone who reads this blog, and sends us messages of hope and comfort. We all appreciate the prayers, visits, assistance, meals, and concern expressed by all of us who love Phil Brown, and are trying to help him get better. We will try to keep the blog updated more often to try to keep you all from worrying. Thanks also go out to Dad's Ward and Stake there in Sandy as they are all helping with meals, visits, and encouragement. We all appreciate your help as we try to get Dad feeling better, and back to his normal healthy self. 

Joe B and all the Browns

Reuions, Reunions, All Over The Place

Here is one more post from Joe. 

In between being sick with cancer, Dad found time to attend three reunions in August. 

I can also report on the Whiting Reunion. Sadly, it wasn’t an  24x7 orgy of meth-fueled fun and excitement like the Phil Brown reunion, but it was a pretty dang good time. After a lot of driving, and a lot of caffeine, Joe, Buffy, and Jacque and kids drove down to the Homestead to enjoy the 2008 Whiting Reunion. It was great to see all those cousins, especially those whom we don’t get to see very often. Dad was especially glad to see all the crowd from his generation there; here are a few pictures of our trip there, and the great time we had.  

I need to state that Reunions in general, but especially the Homestead isn’t the same without my Uncle Brent there; there is a big hole in the entire event for me with that good man missing.

2008 Whiting Reunion - Whiting Homestead, Arizona

This is a picture of Dad with his Brown siblings at the 2008 Whiting Reunion. 

We continue to miss the following people from this picture - Grandma Elda Brown, Aunt Nathel, and most recently Uncle Brent. 
From left to right - Uncle Jack, Aunt Elma, Phil B, Aunt Geraldine, and Aunt Louine. 

At the Sunday service, Dad was supposed to preside over the meeting, but his health wasn't up to all that getting up and down out of his chair. Instead, he was asked to talk. 
Here is a picture of Dad talking at the meeting: 

Here is a short clip of his remarks at that meeting. 

Still from the Whiting Reunion -

This is my post, so you get to see pictures of my beautiful daughter Madeline. 

Here she is getting up-close-and-personal with a milk cow at the Homestead. 
Notice that cool CJ brand!

Here she is at the meeting while Grandpa Brown was talking. 

This is a picture of Dad with his good friend Dan Nowell. These two guys worked together in Phoenix for about 15 years. Dan lives in Pinetop, AZ, so we stopped by to see he and his wife Jan for lunch while we were in AZ. This is Dan, Phil, and the handsome devil on the right is Joe B.  Jan Nowell was nice enough to fix us a great lunch, and then take this picture. 

Porto Portugal Mission Reunion

Then, once we got back, Dad's missionaries had a reunion for him early in August because they were worried that his health wouldn't be good enough if they waited for the October reunion. 

I really want to thank the Elders and Sisters who organized this reunion. There were dozens who helped make it happen, but I especially want to thank Sis. Katrina (Liedke) Leavitt and Elder Brian Hulleberg. They really put this together, and it meant a lot to Pres. Brown.
Here is a short clip of Dad talking to his missionaries. I don't have enough memory to film his entire talk (it was looong) but look how many of these wonderful missionaries came out to see Pres.Brown when he was so sick. 

From Elder Hulleberg's email: 
We had a great showing of missionaries. We had 50+ missionaries and most of their families. It was truly a great event. Everyone was in great form and enjoyed catching up with each other. The missionaries that attended were: Rebecca (Johnson) Akita (Hawaiian), Jeremy Astle and wife Janet (Morrow), John Booth, Margie (Anderson) Boswell, Mike Bradshaw, Kyra (White) Brown, President Phillip Ray Brown, Ariel Bybee, Luis Camara Manuel & wife Angela (Fawson), Scott Chappell, Eurico Costa, Scott Davis, Shawn Durrant, Mark Egnew, Trent Fenton, Mike Hilbig, Jared Holt, Jeff Howes, Brian Hulleberg (Hully), Brandon Johnson, Ryan Johnson (Chinezinho), John Layton, Katrina (Liedke) Leavitt, Paul Martin & wife Laura (Dagley), Kristen (Russell) McQuivey, Michelle (Berry) Mills, Duke Montague, Joseph Murray, Rob Nash, Jeff Rudd, Matt Sager, Greg Spencer, Kim (Garrity) Springer, Doug Swensen, Steve VanWagenen, Mark Vosti, Sister West, Mike White, Ana Xarepe. AND I know there are a few others yet I forgot their name (SORRY – You would think I was 90 - HA). When you see the pictures you will know them.

Joe's note; some of the places this crowd assembled from were: Phoenix, Los Angeles, all over Utah and Idaho, Colorado, Seattle, and yes, Hawaii - thanks to you, Sis. (Hawaii) Johnson.

Phil Brown Sibling Reunion

Finally; the Phil Brown Sibling Reunion - dinner in Kamas, UT on our way up to the "cabin" in the mountains. I am not naming these people; stop reading now if you don't recognize them.

OK, I guess I will. L to R: Becky, John, Jacque, Lexi, Michelle, Nicole, Jeremy, Debbie, Tim, and Buffy. Joe is taking the picture, and Phil Brown is next to me out of frame. 

That is all for now.
We had a marvelous time at all these fantastic reunions.
It is great to be part of such a great family. It was a real sacrifice for some of them to get here from all over the country, but it was fantastic to get to see them all in one spot again.  

Way to go Browns - you know Antoinette is happy to see this mad mob all together again!